Dave Read

BSO names replacements for James Levine

The schedule of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2011 Tanglewood season has been revised with the naming of 5 conductors to replace James Levine, who withdrew from all of his scheduled Tanglewood appearances on the advice of his doctors. Charles Dutoit will lead the BSO’s July 8 Opening Night Gala Concert—an all-Italian program with excerpts from Bellini’s Norma and Verdi’s I lombardi, plus music of Rossini and Respighi—and the BSO’s July 9 performance of Berlioz’s Requiem.

Making his BSO debut, Finnish conductor John Storgaards, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, will lead the July 16 all-Sibelius program with featuring Nikolaj Znaider in the composer’s Violin Concerto. French conductor Emmanuel Krivine will lead the July 24 all-Ravel program featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in both the Piano Concerto in G and Concerto for the Left Hand 24. Hans Graf, Music Director of the Houston Symphony, will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 on a program with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414, with soloist Leon Fleisher, on July 29.

In addition, the esteemed Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos—who was already scheduled at Tanglewood to conduct the BSO on August 5 and 12, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra on August 14—and TMC faculty conductor Stefan Asbury will now take the podium for the gala Tanglewood on Parade concert on the evening of August 2, joining the originally scheduled conductors Christoph Eschenbach and John Williams.

2005 Tanglewood on Parade review

July 26, 2005 Article by Dave Read

The 2005 Tanglewood on Parade may be remebered as the Five Conductors show for the parade of maestros to the podium in the Serge Kousevitsky Music Shed during the gala concert that culminated the all-day musical celebration for the benefit of the Tanglewood Music Center, now 65 years old. By nightfall, an audience of 12,345 had massed at the Shed after an afternoon of recitals, concerts, and demonstrations throughout the campus by students of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center.

First to the podium was Music Director James Levine to lead the B.S.O. in Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture. Wearing a tuxedo on a very hot day, the ruddy-faced maestro wrung a rousing performance from his casually clad players. So swept up was he in the final measure that it looked like he was twirling a lariat, about to rope a brace of basses. Smart programming that, forcing the audiences attention back to the delights of music and away from the joy of the fancy picnic.

Up next was Boston Pops principal guest conductor Bruce Hangen to lead the Pops in the Symphonic Dances from T.M.C. alumnus Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. This was a bravura performance that showcased both the brilliance of the orchestra and the genius of the composer. There were moments when you could’ve mistook Hangen and the Pops for Benny Goodman and his Big Band, so swell did they swing!

Then Pops conductor emeritus John Williams took over, and delighted the audience that had so warmly welcomed him by conducting the Pops in two passages from his own Star Wars score. Maestro Levine came back onstage after intermission, straddling a chair backwards like a kibitzer at a card table, to invoke the spirit of Serge Koussevitsky, express his feelings about being at Tangelwood, and to introduce his predecessor, “colleague and friend” Seiji Ozawa.

The beaming Ozawa sprinted to center stage, hugged Levine, glanced at the adoring audience, clasped hands with four or five T.M.C. players and got right to work leading the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a thrilling performance of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3.

They simply blew the roof off the joint, these young musicians who didn’t know each other until last month and who weren’t even born until Seiji Ozawa was into the second decade of his Tanglewood tenure. The nimble Ozawa, whose contract with the Vienna State Opera was recently extended through the 2009-10 season, was lithe as ever on the podium – a whole body conducting manner that’s both commanding and eloquent.

Frequent Tanglewood guest conductor Hans Graf was the right choice to lead the combined orchestras in the grand finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Wearing a white tunic and projecting a stately demeanor, he conducted a fine aural war, satisfying our appetites for the lush and romantic as well as the savage and martial.

(There were 4 conductors on the Tanglewood on Parade program in 2001, Seiji Ozawa’s last as B.S.O. Music Director, including Andre Previn. A new composition by Chris Brubeck was given its Tanglewood debut, and Ozawa was given an authentic Civil War cannon.)

Sir Roger Norrington leads BSO in Beethoven’s Ninth at Tanglewood

August 25, 2002 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Under the exuberant direction of Sir Roger Norrington, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a quartet of vocal soloists closed the orchestra’s 2002 Tanglewood season with a truly joyful performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125.

This most familiar composition, so often used to commemorate solemn occasions around the world, today was given a mirthful reading appropriate to the true nature of the event – the culminating high point of an annual festival. It has been the Tanglewood finale each August since 1997, but made amazingly new by Norrington, including a re-ordering of the orchestra’s seating arrangement.

The setting outside was as splendid and brilliant as the sound coming from inside the Koussevitsky Shed, the opening of which in 1938 was memorialized with this same symphony. Over the bluegreen hills surrounding the Tanglewood campus, cumulous clouds slowly drifted along, moved by a generous breeze that was a boon to frisbee flingers but a bother to paper plate picnickers among the nearly 13,000 attendees.

Adding to the enjoyment of the performance was the fact that Norrington’s rendition clocked a mere 66 minutes, including an extra minute or two between the first and second movements to allow for the seating of scores of tardy people, way less than the usual 74 minutes, a standard that was used to set the maximum capacity of the compact disc when it was introduced twenty years ago.
(Phillips and Sony each name Beethoven’s Ninth as the ideal)

During that betwen-movements interval, the conductor gave an early indication that he had a special treat in store for us, when turning to face the audience, he leaned playfully for a moment against the podium with an expression of mock exasperation, looking more like a patient parent than an interrupted artist. There were more glances into the audience during the performance, even while his baton waved at the orchestra, and then a big wink just before a loud honking of the contrabassoon. A moment later, bass baritone Nathan Berg intoned Beethoven’s introduction to Schiller’s ode:

O friends, not these tones;
Rather, let us tune our voices
In more pleasant and more joyful song.

What followed was 17 minutes of the most exhilirating and powerful melding of voice and orchestra imaginable. Each of the soloist sang beautifully, (Christine Brewer, Jill Grove, Stanfod Olson, and Berg), but the most beautiful sound was that made by the 120 voices of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Beethoven’s Ninth is a great sonic gift, bequeathed to mankind by a deaf man, the creation of which represents his refusal to yield to gloom. Instead of despairing, he returned to a passion from his youth, Schiller’s ecstatic folk song, and in defiance of the conventions of his art, made this new thing, a symphony wherein the voice is the crucial instrument, extolling sentiments that translate well to all people of good will. Hearty thanks to Maestro Norrington and all the musicians under his direction today, and all the others throughout the memorable Tanglewood 2002 season.

Chesterwood Daniel Chester French studio museum

Article by Dave Read.

Chesterwood, a studio museum located near Stockbridge, MA in the hamlet of Glendale, was the summer home and studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), whose best known works are the Seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. and the Concord Minuteman, in Concord, MA. French bought the property in 1896 and had Chesterwood built by his friend architect Henry Bacon. His daughter donated the 122 acre site to National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns and operates it. Chesterwood also is recognized as a National and Massachusetts Historic Landmark.

Each year, during the month of May, he left his permanent home and studio in New York for six months and moved with his family to Chesterwood, where he worked on over 200 public and private commissions. Many of French’s plaster sketches, including models of his Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial, are on view today in his Studio as well as in the permanent exhibit, Daniel Chester French: Sculpting an American Vision, in Barn Gallery.

Chesterwood visitor information and driving directions:

4 Williamsville Road
PO Box 827 (mailing address)
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Telephone: 413.298.3579
Web: Chesterwood.org

Chesterwood will be open weekends May 1 through May 28, then daily through Monday, October 10, 2011. The site will also be open the last three weekends in October. Guided tours of Daniel Chester French’s historic Studio and residence will be available on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 2pm for an additional $2 fee. Admission prices: Adults $15; NTHP members $7.50; Members of Friends of Chesterwood free. Kids under 18 visit free every day.
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James Levine resigns BSO top job

Maestro James Levine’s tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will end September 1, 2011, due to the health problems that have caused him to cancel many scheduled performances with the BSO since he took the job in 2004. Mr. Levine and the orchestra are discussing the creation of a new role that will allow his continued work with the BSO, which has begun a search for a new music director. Maestro Levine succeeded Seiji Ozawa, who led the BSO from 1979 – 2002, and was the longest-tenured of the 16 music directors in the orchestra’s 130 years. (2011 Tanglewood schedule.)

Maestro James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

Housatonic River PCB remediation

The Housatonic River Initiative will host a panel discussion Wednesday, January 19th, 7 P.M. at Lenox Community Center to answer the question, Is there a better way than hazardous waste dumps in Berkshire County? Presentations will be given by Chris Young, CEO of Biotech Restorations and by Michael Hodges, CEO of Genesis Fluid Solutions.

BioTech Restorations (BTR) and GeoSolve, Inc. have successfully bio-remediated three properties to unrestricted use in California using their Factor. BTR Factor is a California EPA approved bio-remedial technology. Genesis Rapid Dewatering System (RDS) removes sediments and contaminants from all types of waterways quickly, less expensively, and on a smaller footprint.

Co-sponsors include:

Lee Community Development Corporation
Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire
Berkshire Environmental Action Team
Housatonic Environmental Action League
Housatonic Valley Association

EPA Public Comment Period ends January 31, 2011 – send comments to svirsky.susan@epa.gov

For more information: Tim Gray, Housatonic Riverkeeper, Executive Director – Housatonic River Initiative;
P.O. Box 321, Lenoxdale, Mass. 01242, 413-446-2520.